I seem to be on a roll harping on the distinction between spoken English and written English. It’s a good roll since it gets at the heart of many of the difficulties that writers, and especially technical writers, have with producing good copy.
While we are on that roll, let’s look at another example highlighted in the graphic at left. Often writers, and especially inexperienced writers, will simply transcribe speech when writing. Such practices lead to ineffective structures such as the one in the example graphic.
Why is this structure ineffective? The writer has produced as sentence with an incomplete verb.
The complete verb in question here is might have been avoided, which is actually a combination of three verbs: the simple past tense of might (which has an infinitive form without a preceding to), the present perfect tense of to be, and the simple past tense of to avoid. Replacing have with of creates obvious structural problems, as the verb phrase requires all three parts to communicate the intended meaning.
Thus, a more properly written sentence would look like this:
While we are on that roll, let’s look at another example highlighted in the graphic at left. Often writers, and especially inexperienced writers, will simply transcribe speech when writing. Such practices lead to ineffective structures such as the one in the example graphic.
Why is this structure ineffective? The writer has produced as sentence with an incomplete verb.
The complete verb in question here is might have been avoided, which is actually a combination of three verbs: the simple past tense of might (which has an infinitive form without a preceding to), the present perfect tense of to be, and the simple past tense of to avoid. Replacing have with of creates obvious structural problems, as the verb phrase requires all three parts to communicate the intended meaning.
Thus, a more properly written sentence would look like this:
Complete system failure might have been avoided had a redundant hydraulic subsystem been installed.
Could, should, and would function similarly to might. Thus, the same guidelines apply when using verb phrases with these words as well.
The error is understandable. Have and of sound very similar when spoken quickly enough — hence the problem in simply transcribing speech when writing.
However, I recommend that in your writing you rise above that common misconception and understand the distinctions between spoken English and written English. Your readers will view your writing as well as you and the brands connected with your writing in a much better light.
The error is understandable. Have and of sound very similar when spoken quickly enough — hence the problem in simply transcribing speech when writing.
However, I recommend that in your writing you rise above that common misconception and understand the distinctions between spoken English and written English. Your readers will view your writing as well as you and the brands connected with your writing in a much better light.
RSS Feed